Sunderland have almost everything in place to be a top Premier League club – a loyal fan-base, a large modern stadium, a rich owner and an experienced manager. So why have they flattered to deceive over recent seasons?
There can be quite a few answers to this question including the poor managerial leadership of Steve Bruce and Roy Keane and the large amount of transfers they have made, meaning the squad has very rarely been settled. Then there’s the lack of a genuine goalscorer since Darren Bent decided the grass was greener at Aston Villa.
Now with Martin O’Neill, Sunderland have a manager who focuses on quality rather than quantity, Sunderland appeared to have forged a brilliant squad and polished it off with that elusive goalscoring striker in the form of Steven Fletcher. £14 million for Fletcher is widely regarded as an overly expensive signing but in my opinion it could turn into a real bargain.
Fletcher has been in the Premier League for 3 years at 2 struggling clubs, 1 year at Burnley and 2 years at Wolves. However, his goals have given these clubs a glimmer of hope that they can survive with 30 goals in 96 appearances before he signed for Sunderland. These goals didn’t prevent these clubs from falling through the Premier League’s trapdoor, but Fletcher was his team’s top scorer in all 3 of these seasons and therefore played his part in the team effort to stay up.
No team can put a price on goals, as without an accomplished goalscorer there is very little chance of a team achieving what they expect to. In a team with the creative talents of Sunderland from players like Sessegnon, Larsson, McClean and Adam Johnson, Fletcher should score plenty of goals for O’Neill’s men, as shown in his first two games for Sunderland.
As well as this, there are very few strikers around in European Football that have such an accomplished record as Fletcher, that would have been available around the same price as the Scot and would be prepared to play the lone striker role that Fletcher is so used to having played for the underdog on so many occasions.
Despite all the positives, Fletcher has quite a feisty personality as proven by his refusal to play for Scotland whilst Craig Levein remains as Scotland manager and we all saw how he handed in a transfer request at Sunderland. But Martin O’Neill is renowned for his man-management skills and his knack at getting the best out of his player’s ability.
In summary, with Fletcher’s ability to turn small chances into goals and the players there are to supply him at Sunderland under the guidance of O’Neill , Fletcher will become one of the more celebrated strikers in the league and potentially turn Sunderland into European challengers.
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“and we all saw how he handed in a transfer request at Sunderland.”
Ooops!!
I think you meant Wolves!
If you think £14 million could end up a bargain, imagine getting him for only £12 million – which is the actual fee Sunderland paid ! This has been confirmed by Martin O’Neill and the £14m was just a figure plucked out of the sky by journalists – the fee was undisclosed, until MON spilt the beans ! Keep up please.